Haimi Fenichel

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"In my studio I pursue an uncompromising search for new connections, concocting one-of-a-kind artworks out of common materials. I am particularly interested in the latter, for each material has its own cultural and local memory, and is part of a frame of reference and field of associations."

Haimi Fenichel is a 2002 graduate of the Department of Ceramics and Glass Design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. An acclaimed contemporary Israeli sculptor, he is the recipient of numerous awards, including First Prize at the Alix de Rothschild Competition by the Israel Crafts Foundation (2005); the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture’s Young Artist Award (2007); First Prize at the All About Him Competition, Goethe-Institut Bulgarien, Sofia (2008); and the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture’s Encouragement Award (2014), Encouragement of Creativity Prize of Israel Discount Bank and Israeli Ministry of Culture Prize (2017). Fenichel has participated in many solo and group exhibitions in Israel and Europe. His works are held in numerous public collections, including The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Collection; the Yona Fischer Collection, Ashdod Art Museum; and the Israel Discount Bank Collection.

Fenichel produces finely detailed objects in diverse materials, applying elaborate techniques and technologies. His complex, refined sculptures are informed by the forms, styles, and materials of early modernist architecture in Israel. He employs construction materials prevalent in Israeli interiors and urban settings, such as sand, concrete, and terrazzo. In doing so, he celebrates the paucity of the local building materials, which have come to represent a lost ethos of moderation and simplicity. Images of national construction are employed by Fenichel to render metaphoric images of masculinity and strength, which, paradoxically, are expressed in delicate, poetic lines.